E2 Morning Round-up: Senate Dems and GOP prep for energy duel, winners and losers in the Senate bill, green group offers beach reading, and federal BP probes intensify

Senate energy and oil spill battle taking shape

Democratic leaders unveiled the bill late Tuesday night after circulating a summary earlier in the day. But it’s not set in stone as lobbying continues — the 10 p.m. announcement of the bill from Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) office heralds arrival of the “current legislative text.”

The current legislative text blends spill response measures — like tougher blowout prevention requirements — and incentives for natural-gas vehicles, electric cars and home-efficiency retrofits.

House debate on separate oil spill legislation is slated for Friday. Darren looks into the political battle over the bills here, and we’ve got other pieces on the bills here, here and here. Reid hopes to pass the bill by the end of next week, in time for the August recess.

Senate political messaging heats up

The Dems: Reid and Sens. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.) are holding a press conference late Wednesday morning to talk up the bill, where they’ll be joined by the Home Star Coalition that backs home energy retrofit measures, and the Pew Environment Group.

The GOP: Several Senate Republicans hold their own press conference Wednesday where they’ll attack some elements of the Dems’ plan and tout their alternative bill circulated late last week. Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee — and other senators will be there.

Winners and losers

The Senate bill is a rather narrow set of energy provisions because Reid dumped a larger climate and energy package last week, citing the absence of 60 votes.

The electric-car provisions drew cheers Tuesday from the Electrification Coalition, while the Alliance to Save Energy applauded the Home Star program that provides consumer rebates for efficiency overhauls, claiming it will create 168,000 jobs over two years.

But giant ethanol producer Poet called the lack of ethanol incentives a “missed opportunity” in a statement Tuesday. And the environmental group Earthworks is worried about the push for more use of natural gas.

“Earthworks is stunned to see the one-sided nature of the Senate energy proposal, released today, which increases incentives for natural gas production without addressing the impacts of natural gas on communities and water supplies across the country,” the group said Tuesday.

The American Petroleum Institute — the oil industry’s most powerful trade group — bashed provisions that remove the cap on companies’ liability for damages from offshore spills.

“Requiring an unattainable level of insurance coverage for domestic energy producers on the Outer Continental Shelf will force the vast majority of American companies out of U.S. waters, according to insurers. This would cut domestic production, kill American jobs, slow economic growth and cost billions in federal oil and natural gas revenues,” the group said Tuesday.

Odds and ends

The Senate bill requires energy companies to disclose the chemicals they’re using when employing a controversial onshore gas drilling technique called “hydraulic fracturing.”

Another provision requires the Energy Department to provide monthly reports on the economic effects of the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling. The reports would look at employment in the industry, small-business revenues in the Gulf and other effects, and provide ideas to mitigate harms to small businesses.

The provision is a nod to Gulf Coast lawmakers who say the drilling freeze will badly hurt the already-battered region, but critics of the ban want it lifted. The Senate GOP alternative bill does just that.

Enviro group offers some beach reading

The Natural Resources Defense Council will unveil its 20th annual report on the state of the nation’s beaches Wednesday. This year’s version has a special focus on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

From the group’s announcement: “ ‘Testing the Waters’ will reveal which beaches in our area and across the country have pollution problems and which tested clean. In addition to presenting beach closing, advisory and water monitoring data for more than 3,000 beaches nationwide, the report includes a 5-star rating chart for 200 popular U.S. beaches. In light of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this year the report also includes a special section dedicated to oil-related closures, advisories and notices in the Gulf region this summer.”

The Gulf spill is dissipating faster than expected

From the New York Times:

“The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”

But the story warns, “The effect on sea life of the large amounts of oil that dissolved below the surface is still a mystery. Two preliminary government reports on that issue have found concentrations of toxic compounds in the deep sea to be low, but the reports left many questions, especially regarding an apparent decline in oxygen levels in the water.”

BP’s overhaul, a day later

The Wall Street Journal looks at the company a day after it announced CEO Tony Hayward is leaving and that it would sell off $30 billion in assets.

“Yet even after all that, some investors complained that BP had missed an opportunity to clean house and make a definitive break with its troubled past. And the company’s apparent success in capping the ruptured well — which has helped produce a rebound in its pummeled stock price — may have made BP less inclined to perform more radical surgery,” the paper reports.

Justice Dept., SEC probe spill-related trading

From Reuters:

“BP Plc said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department had launched a probe into market trading connected to the oil giant’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.”

“ ‘The Securities and Exchange Commission and DoJ are conducting informal inquiries into securities matters arising in relation to the incident,’ the company said in a statement on Tuesday.”

Federal investigators are circling BP, Halliburton and Transocean

The Washington Post reports that the federal probe will look at the firms’ ties to regulators.

“A team of federal investigators known as the ‘BP squad’ is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources,” the Post reports.